Google is quietly killing backlinks
AI didn't take a summer holiday - it's been strip-mining the internet while you were sweating through client calls. Search is mutating in real time, publishers are in a collective panic attack, and consumers are quietly shifting discovery from feeds to AI agents.
Google just expanded AI Mode to five more languages (Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese) and is reportedly lining it up as the default search experience. That means fewer familiar blue links and more generative answers delivered upfront. For publishers, it's a slow suffocation. For marketers, it redraws the funnel-again. Your customer journey is now being intercepted by Google's AI before it even considers sending you the click.
Meanwhile, Google's also juggling new DOJ restrictions that limit parts of its distribution playbook and may force more data-sharing with rivals. Translation: Google is hell-bent on pushing AI search while trying not to trip over regulators, publishers, and its own ad business.
The takeaway for marketers
Don't wait for the obituary of the "10 blue links." Your visibility strategy now lives or dies by:
- Owning demand - brand, community, direct channels.
- Testing AI surfaces early - AI overviews, chat agents, zero-click environments.
- Rethinking attribution - when traffic stops flowing like it used to.
If you're still optimising like it's 2019, you're burning time, and your clients’ money.
The 5 stories marketers should care about this week
Publishers call Google's AI shift an 'existential crisis'
UK media outlets say AI-led search is plundering content and draining referrals; they're exploring legal, standards, and product responses.
Why marketers should care: Publisher supply shocks ripple into ad inventory, CPMs, and brand-safe placements; expect pricier, scarcer premium inventory and more direct deals. The Guardian
eMarketer: 1 in 3 US adults now use AI agents for discovery
Mainstream consumers are searching via AI assistants, not just engines or social.
Why marketers should care: Treat AI agents as retail media for information-optimise product facts, pricing clarity, and comparisons to become the "canonical answer" surfaced by agents. EMARKETER
Google expands AI Mode languages
New languages open the door to non-English queries in generative search.
Why marketers should care: Localisation isn't translation; build region-specific FAQs, pricing, and compliance copy structured for AI summaries. TechCrunch
ISBA: Marketers' gen-AI usage quadrupled in a year (UK)
New data shows adoption jumping from 9% (2024) to 41% (2025) using at least one gen-AI use case.
Why marketers should care: We're past the novelty phase-expect procurement standards, ROI scrutiny, and governance audits to follow. Marketing Week
Retail: "Agentic AI" is merging service and marketing
Vendors pitch AI that answers WISMO ("where is my order?") and proactively markets next best offers.
Why marketers should care: CX and CRM blur; coordinate service + lifecycle marketing so offers don't collide with support moments. RetailDetail EU
One Tool We're Trying This Week
Google's browser-based playground for building and testing AI apps, prompts, and lightweight agents-getting newfound attention beyond dev circles.
How we're using it.
- We’re finding it useful to prototype a creative brief refiner that ingests brand guardrails and outputs channel-specific briefs.
- Another thing it seems good at: Spinning up a Q&A bot that answers product specs and pricing from a controlled doc set (think: sales enablement).
- Mock campaign concept comparators: feed two ideas, get target-audience pros/cons and testable hypotheses.
Verdict: Worth a play. Not a replacement for production apps, but brilliant for fast experiments, stakeholder demos, and showing your CMO how an "AI agent" could actually move a KPI next quarter.
Meme of the Week
IYKYK
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